Jud 14:1-5. SAMSON DESIRES A WIFE OF THE PHILISTINES.

      1, 2. Timnath--now Tibna, about three miles from Zorah, his birthplace.
      saw a woman . . . of the Philistines; and told his father and his mother, and said, . . . get her for me to wife--In the East parents did, and do in many cases still, negotiate the marriage alliances for their sons. During their period of ascendency, the Philistine invaders had settled in the towns; and the intercourse between them and the Israelites was often of such a friendly and familiar character as to issue in matrimonial relations. Moreover, the Philistines were not in the number of the seven devoted nations of Canaan [De 7:1-3] --with whom the law forbade them to marry.

JFB.